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Single Idea 18293

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / f. Übermensch ]

Full Idea

The noble man wants to create new things and a new virtue. The good man wants the old things and that the old things shall be preserved.

Gist of Idea

The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra [1884], 1.09)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', ed/tr. Hollingdale,R.J. [Penguin 1969], p.71

A Reaction

There is a limit to how many plausible virtues the noble men can come up with. We may already have run out. Are we going to have to re-run the Iliad?

Related Idea

Idea 23910 Greatness of soul produces all the virtues - and vice versa [Aristotle]

The 18 ideas with the same theme [moral visionaries as the source of ethical systems]:

4115 Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
5234 For the great-souled man it is sometimes better to be dead [Aristotle]
23358 Every species produces exceptional beings, and we must just accept their nature [Epictetus]
20138 Christianity is at war with the higher type of man, and excommunicates his basic instincts [Nietzsche]
23440 Nietzsche's judgement of actions by psychology instead of outcome was poisonous [Foot on Nietzsche]
2883 Noble people see themselves as the determiners of values [Nietzsche]
23208 Caesar and Napoleon point to the future, when they pursue their task regardless of human sacrifice [Nietzsche]
23193 Napoleon was very focused, and rightly ignored compassion [Nietzsche]
20141 Higher human beings see and hear far more than others, and do it more thoughtfully [Nietzsche]
4408 The concept of 'good' was created by aristocrats to describe their own actions [Nietzsche]
23716 A strong rounded person soon forgets enemies, misfortunes, and even misdeeds [Nietzsche]
14810 Originally it was the rulers who requited good for good and evil for evil who were called 'good' [Nietzsche]
20136 There is an extended logic to a great man's life, achieved by a sustained will [Nietzsche]
20358 The highest man can endure and control the greatest combination of powerful drives [Nietzsche]
20369 The highest man directs the values of the highest natures over millenia [Nietzsche]
8041 The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre on Nietzsche]
20135 Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
18293 The noble man wants new virtues; the good man preserves what is old [Nietzsche]